thermal

Meanings

Adjective

• Pertaining to heat or temperature.
• Providing efficient insulation so as to keep the body warm.
• Caused or brought about by heat.
• Having a rough finish by treatment with a blow-torch.

Noun

• A column of rising air in the lower atmosphere created by uneven heating of Earth's surface.

Verb

• To create a rough finish on stone by treating it with a high-temperature blow-torch.
• To fly an unpowered aircraft in a (thermal) column of rising air.

Related

Similar words

• thermal column

Narrower meaning words

• aerothermal
• hydrothermal

Origin

• From French thermal, from New Latin *thermalis, from Ancient Greek θέρμη ("heat"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- ("to heat, warm").